The foundation of life is survival, and it is only when you take care of the matter of survival that the more subtle aspects of life are opened up and take their place.

- Sadhguru (Enlightened Being, Enlightened Yogi, Mystic, Visionary Humanitarian, Outstanding Spiritual Teacher)

The Ueno Kingdom on the Higashiyama Road is indeed the territory of the Uesugi family now, but after all, it is not the core territory that the Uesugi family has operated for many years;

The Date family, which has the country of Shimono as the family's home base, is probably not as strong as the Yanhuang family now, and even if it is not reinforced by Bai Feng's expeditionary army, the Yanhuang family, which has a standing army of more than 70,000 people, is still stronger than the declining Date family!

If it weren't for the fact that when Bai Feng left Mutsu Province, he strictly ordered Nanbu Nobunao, Sanada Masayuki and others to prohibit the mobilization of peasant soldiers, and the Mutsu Province, which had more than 3 million people, would have at least raised more than 300,000 peasant soldiers for the Yanhuang family.

More than 70,000 soldiers of the standing army who practiced every day, plus more than 300,000 peasant soldiers who took up arms, not to mention the 150,000 combined forces of the Uesugi family and the Date family, or the 300,000 invading army, it was impossible to capture the Mutsu Kingdom of the Yanhuang family!

The crux of the matter is that the Yanhuang family, which has more than 70,000 standing troops, cannot easily mobilize the tens of thousands of standing troops left behind in various parts of the Mutsu Kingdom, and all the troops that can be mobilized are only about 36,000 soldiers after they are concentrated in Gaoshui Temple Castle and Bian Shi Imperial Palace.

Even if these more than 36,000 soldiers defended the Gaoshui Temple Castle and the Bian Stone Imperial Palace, it was not something that the combined forces of the Uesugi family and the Date family could conquer in a short time;

There is such a bad experience, as long as the Yanhuang family sweeps the Shimono country of the Date family and the torn Changlu country with a thunderous force, Bai Feng believes that after seeing the strength of the Yanhuang family, Uesugi Kenshin will not choose to be the enemy of the Yanhuang family.

Even if the Yanhuang family has a claim to the Uesugi family's Ueno country, a person as smart as Uesugi Kenshin will inevitably make the most beneficial choice for the Uesugi family between a powerful ally and a territory of little value.

As for Date Masamune's Date family, it is not unacceptable for the Uesugi family to replace the Date family in Shimono Province by the Yanhuang family who rose in Mutsu Province and become one of the ten major families of the Yamato Empire without affecting the Uesugi family's own strength.

But if the Yanhuang family marched towards the Deyu country, would the Uesugi family, whose core territory was threatened, still be able to calmly accept the rise of the Yanhuang family? In all fairness, if the same thing was put on him, Bai Feng felt that he would definitely not compromise.

The Izuwa Province between Mutsu and Echigo provinces is the border area between the Higashiyama and Hokuriku Provinces, and the only route for Echigo and Mutsu provinces to attack each other, and if it were not passed through Dewa Province, the distance between Echigo and Mutsu would be at least tripled!

In view of this, in order to ensure the absolute security of the Michinoku Kingdom, Hakumine wanted to take down the Dewa Province and completely eliminate the possible threats around the Michinoku Kingdom, but for the Uesugi family, this move was tantamount to hanging a sword over their heads that could threaten the safety of their family at any time.

It is no exaggeration to say that whoever controls the Izuwa country of the Yanhuang family and the Uesugi family will control the strategic initiative of the other family, and the family that loses the Dewa country will not only be strategically passive, but will also lose a large rear that is not subject to external interference.

With the wisdom of Kenshin Uesugi, it is impossible for him not to see the strategic value of the Izuba Kingdom, in fact, it is the Anton family who is now serving as the guardian of the Dewa Province, and the Anton family itself is one of the main vassal families of the Uesugi family!

From this point of view, once the Yanhuang clan attacked the Izuha country, it would be tantamount to directly declaring war on the Uesugi family, and whether it was for the sake of his own family's strategic security or his own family's prestige, Uesugi Kenshin could not sit idly by.

Attacking Shimono Province is an enemy of the Date family, and attacking Hitachi Province will inevitably oppress the sensitive Hojo family, and then become hostile to the Hojo family; at this time, if a conflict breaks out with the Uesugi family, there will be too many enemies of the Yanhuang family.

Hakumine, who was bent on seizing the Dewa Kingdom and didn't want the Yanhuang family to make too many enemies without allies, stared at the colorful map of the Yamato Empire for a long time, and finally locked his eyes on the Takeda family in Kai and the Oda family in Owari.

Although Tokugawa Ieyasu, the governor of the Tokugawa family, his name made Bai Feng feel uncomfortable subconsciously, but with the special relationship between the Tokugawa family and the Oda family, as well as the current strength of the Tokugawa family, the Oda family is a potential ally in Bai Feng's eyes.

In line with the idea that the enemy of an enemy is a friend, Bai Feng felt that his Yanhuang family and the Oda family, which was in full swing, were not without the possibility of an alliance;

The strategically important and difficult to defend Shinano Province already had one-third of its territory under the de facto control of the Oda family, while half of the remaining two-thirds of the territory was secretly controlled by the Takeda family, and half was still independent.

The various clans in the territory of the independent Shinano Province were nominally independent forces, but in fact they were puppet forces secretly supported by powerful families such as Uesugi and Date, and even the Tokugawa family, a semi-vassal force of the Oda family, were involved.

This situation is a good opportunity for Bai Feng to form an alliance with the Oda family, and if he can get an alliance with the Oda family on the condition of eliminating the Date family and supporting the Oda family to unify the Shinano country, it will be the most beneficial to the Yanhuang family.

Bai Feng, who has always adhered to the concept of distant friendship and close attack, insisted that allies should choose those who are farther away from their own forces, rather than close to their own forces, and compared to the Uesugi family, which is close to the Yanhuang family, the Oda family, which is far away from the Yanhuang family, is undoubtedly more attractive to Bai Feng.

Of course, Hakumine could also choose to abandon his ambitions for Dewa and ensure the safety of Mutsu by stationing heavy troops in the northwestern part of the country, so that he could avoid a head-on conflict with the Uesugi family.

Anyway, the Uesugi family of Echigo, the core territory of the family is all coastal countries, as long as Hakumine successfully eliminates the pirate forces on Sado Island and builds Sado Island into a naval base for the Roman fleet in the Yamato Empire, the Uesugi family will be lambs to the slaughter!

During the development and expansion stage of the Yanhuang family's consolidation, the ships of the Roman fleet could disguise themselves as pirates on Sado Island and plunder the coastal towns of the Uesugi family, weakening the strength of the Uesugi family on the one hand and hindering the development of the Uesugi family on the other.

When one day the Yanhuang family and the Uesugi family meet each other in battle for supremacy in the north, the Roman fleet from Sado Island can transport the army of the Yanhuang family to the coast of the Uesugi family, and stick a fatal knife in the back of the Uesugi family!